I can't believe I forgot to mention two other things that kept me playing the co-op:

Weekly weapon balances, even though many of those were driven by crazy BSN complaints, made it feel that the devs give a crap about the system.

Weapons that feel distinct. Variance for variety's sake doesn't help me in games like BF3, where I use all bolt action rifles 85% the same and all ARs 70% the same. In ME3, there are some guns that are similar, but I'm still not going to use a Revenant in the same way that I use a Phaeston, nor do I use a Black Widow the same way as a Valiant.

I can't believe I forgot to mention two other things that kept me playing the co-op:

Weekly weapon balances, even though many of those were driven by crazy BSN complaints, made it feel that the devs give a crap about the system.

Weapons that feel distinct. Variance for variety's sake doesn't help me in games like BF3, where I use all bolt action rifles 85% the same and all ARs 70% the same. In ME3, there are some guns that are similar, but I'm still not going to use a Revenant in the same way that I use a Phaeston, nor do I use a Black Widow the same way as a Valiant.

Truth.

And actually, this is a fair compliment to the whole ME2 shift in design. ME1 was very much a matter of 'different guns in the same category have different stats, but are otherwise the same.' Part of what made inventory management a nightmare. In ME2 they made a clear shift to designing weapons that actually behaved differently. There weren't a whole lot of them (what, two in each category by default?), but the idea was there, and it grew. And in ME3, it exploded, in the most awesome of ways.

To expand on what others have said, I am not normally a multiplayer gamer. I don't typically like shooters. But there was a kind of magic in Mass Effect's feel, its aesthetic, and the mix of powers and shooting. They managed to take that, convert it to multiplayer, and keep it intact. Better, even. Reducing the powers we had to work with actually made the game more compelling, I think, and forced us to rely on allies (I mean, you can PUG, but it's not nearly as much fun). Though I still wish I could remap powers so they use the buttons I want

Didn't realize you guys were still playing. I'm highly tempted to install and fire up some ME3MP ... my backlog of games suffered tremendously due to ME3MP, which was basically all I played for a year and a half. Still, it was awesome, and I'm getting the itch to play again, thanks to this thread.

Didn't realize you guys were still playing. I'm highly tempted to install and fire up some ME3MP ... my backlog of games suffered tremendously due to ME3MP, which was basically all I played for a year and a half. Still, it was awesome, and I'm getting the itch to play again, thanks to this thread.

This, this is me. I've got too many games crying out to be played to suffer this again!

Didn't realize you guys were still playing. I'm highly tempted to install and fire up some ME3MP ... my backlog of games suffered tremendously due to ME3MP, which was basically all I played for a year and a half. Still, it was awesome, and I'm getting the itch to play again, thanks to this thread.

This, this is me. I've got too many games crying out to be played to suffer this again!

Yeah, I am really, really trying to close out some items on my backlog before I leap back in. I am so close! and I know if I stop, I'll have to start from the beginning when I go back to them again.

more OT: I will be back home for a three weeks holiday starting from this weekend, which means my ping will be good enough for online gaming. ME3MP is on top of the list of games I will fire up on this weekend :-)From where I work and live most of my time I get latencies in the high 500s at best, going home to a below 100ms ping feels always like a jump to lightspeed. With ME3MP and its peer-to-peer connection the lag becomes so bad that it is unplayable. That is something I hope they can improve with ME4 multiplayer and give us dedicated game servers. For multiplayer I'm also playing D3 (on hold now untile xpack comes out) and SWTOR and while there is also lag, it is at least consistent which makes it able for me to somewhat adjust, but ME3 is just outright unplayable most of the time.

Jumped into a few games with Driscon yesterday, for the first time since... umm... I think for the first time since shortly after the Collector faction came out?

Silver was actually challenging, my rhythm and aim are completely off. And there are about a million classes and weapons I don't have, some of which look really fun. So if anyone wants to invite me to games periodically (I'm only typically available weekend evenings or after 10pm MST on weeknights) I promise to absorb my fair share of enemy fire.

Fucking Phantom sync kills... the only thing that can stop a Krogan Vanguard.

Asari adept (not the justicar).

Don't leave home (if you're going up against Cerberus) without one.

Stasis is the greatest thing ever for phantom management. Warp makes a mess of dragoons.

I was just annoyed because I was punching All The Things, including beating down Atlases, without any problem, leading the team in score... and then I'd suddenly end up with a Phantom I never saw killing me from behind. The only times I ever even got knocked down were all Phantom OHKs.

It was my own fault, I was Vanguarding with someone else hosting, so there were some lag issues, and no BE specialists in the game. We ended up full extracting and I never had to use a missile or medkit, so I guess I can't complain too much.

Fucking Phantom sync kills... the only thing that can stop a Krogan Vanguard.

Asari adept (not the justicar).

Don't leave home (if you're going up against Cerberus) without one.

Stasis is the greatest thing ever for phantom management. Warp makes a mess of dragoons.

I was just annoyed because I was punching All The Things, including beating down Atlases, without any problem, leading the team in score... and then I'd suddenly end up with a Phantom I never saw killing me from behind. The only times I ever even got knocked down were all Phantom OHKs.

It was my own fault, I was Vanguarding with someone else hosting, so there were some lag issues, and no BE specialists in the game. We ended up full extracting and I never had to use a missile or medkit, so I guess I can't complain too much.

Even as host, I occasionally get killed with an instant sync when I either chose the wrong target, or the potential sync killer gets between me and where I was going (banshee jumps in and your brackets switch just as you hit the key and you can't stop yourself ...). I mean, on screen it looks like they started the sync kill before I even got there. Hell, I've been sync killed before BC even hit or did damage on occasion.

Eh, I went Krogan Warlord last night. Got sync killed by brutes twice and banshees once. Meanwhile LodeRunner is just happily walking around impervious. Grrrr...

I'm slightly leaning against depending on Stasis against Phantoms, because the cooldown often isn't enough against the three or four phantoms that show up later waves of Gold. There are plenty of counters. Dark Channel via Huntress is one of my favorites: as a hitscan it never misses, it kills extremely quickly, and it hops onto another target afterwards.

e: suddenly realized I forgot to mention that LodeRunner was playing a Juggy that round.

Eh, I went Krogan Warlord last night. Got sync killed by brutes twice and banshees once. Meanwhile LodeRunner is just happily walking around impervious. Grrrr...

I'm slightly leaning against depending on Stasis against Phantoms, because the cooldown often isn't enough against the three or four phantoms that show up later waves of Gold. There are plenty of counters. Dark Channel via Huntress is one of my favorites: as a hitscan it never misses, it kills extremely quickly, and it hops onto another target afterwards.

Dark Channel and Reave are both great for Phantom-killing. Stasis is hard to beat, naturally, but if you're relying on it, having two stasis-capable characters on board really helps. I used to go Asari Vanguard to someone else's Asari Adept

it drives me nuts that i can tank 3 banshees and a couple brutes and ravagers simultaneously no problem at all. but 2 Praetorians stagger the crap out of my Juggy.

i still just sigh over how broken collectors are compared to the other factions.that said, haven't played a ton of this recently, been getting my Coop MP treadmill fix from Payday 2.

WIth Praetorians I found that I just need to take a step back between melees (or more than 1) to reset them. I think the continuous stagger effect is them repeatedly trying for a sync grab and it doesn't work. Scions are the real threat honestly. Even with SB V and a CM IV equipped, 3-4 of them are deadly, particularly if there are any troopers or captains up (those light hitting but high speed weapons make the shield gate completely useless).

I always loved the Batarian vanguard. With falcon punch giving a higher dr than normal melee, it's super easy to trigger invincibility frames with him. Sure nut/skull punching people doesn't do a lot of damage, but his forward and lateral movement speed is nice when there is a phantom trying to sync you.

I was in a pub lobby with a guy who had N7 rating of 48000. Yes, that's 3 zeroes. I noticed that the player had also promoted the Adept class 255 times, which set off some alarms, but since he was the last one to join the game, I didn't have much time to dwell on it.

After the match, his N7 rating dropped to a much more reasonable 500-something. I wonder what peculiar bug would use a default of 255 for how many times you've promoted each class.

I was in a pub lobby with a guy who had N7 rating of 48000. Yes, that's 3 zeroes. I noticed that the player had also promoted the Adept class 255 times, which set off some alarms, but since he was the last one to join the game, I didn't have much time to dwell on it.

After the match, his N7 rating dropped to a much more reasonable 500-something. I wonder what peculiar bug would use a default of 255 for how many times you've promoted each class.

Maybe the value that stores promotions is just an 8 bit int like the consumables? (Or would they make it a larger int but simply cap the value? I am most definitely not a programmer).

I was in a pub lobby with a guy who had N7 rating of 48000. Yes, that's 3 zeroes. I noticed that the player had also promoted the Adept class 255 times, which set off some alarms, but since he was the last one to join the game, I didn't have much time to dwell on it.

After the match, his N7 rating dropped to a much more reasonable 500-something. I wonder what peculiar bug would use a default of 255 for how many times you've promoted each class.

Maybe the value that stores promotions is just an 8 bit int like the consumables? (Or would they make it a larger int but simply cap the value? I am most definitely not a programmer).

I guess the question is, why default it to max value instead of min value?

If it was written in c, it's even worse then you think if I am remembering my data types correctly. Only char type data is a 1 byte expression. Even int's are a minimum of 2 bytes, and typically 4 (just as floats).

Didn't realize you guys were still playing. I'm highly tempted to install and fire up some ME3MP ... my backlog of games suffered tremendously due to ME3MP, which was basically all I played for a year and a half. Still, it was awesome, and I'm getting the itch to play again, thanks to this thread.

This, this is me. I've got too many games crying out to be played to suffer this again!

Yeah, I am really, really trying to close out some items on my backlog before I leap back in. I am so close! and I know if I stop, I'll have to start from the beginning when I go back to them again.

Didn't realize you guys were still playing. I'm highly tempted to install and fire up some ME3MP ... my backlog of games suffered tremendously due to ME3MP, which was basically all I played for a year and a half. Still, it was awesome, and I'm getting the itch to play again, thanks to this thread.

This, this is me. I've got too many games crying out to be played to suffer this again!

Yeah, I am really, really trying to close out some items on my backlog before I leap back in. I am so close! and I know if I stop, I'll have to start from the beginning when I go back to them again.

Is this a PC-only party or are we getting back on Xbox too?

My XBOX is in storage at the moment (preparing to move), but when it's back online in about a month, I'd be happy to jump back in. I miss the old crew running around wrecking Collectors and things.

Didn't realize you guys were still playing. I'm highly tempted to install and fire up some ME3MP ... my backlog of games suffered tremendously due to ME3MP, which was basically all I played for a year and a half. Still, it was awesome, and I'm getting the itch to play again, thanks to this thread.

This, this is me. I've got too many games crying out to be played to suffer this again!

Yeah, I am really, really trying to close out some items on my backlog before I leap back in. I am so close! and I know if I stop, I'll have to start from the beginning when I go back to them again.

Is this a PC-only party or are we getting back on Xbox too?

My XBOX is in storage at the moment (preparing to move), but when it's back online in about a month, I'd be happy to jump back in. I miss the old crew running around wrecking Collectors and things.

I am certain I can convince Praxis to jump back in, too.

YES. My wife and I were just saying the same thing. That will give me time to finish the DLC in Skyrim. Also...Destiny, yeah?

So, my Origin friends list has apparently filled up its 100 slots between this and BF3. With BF4 picking up next week, I'm probably going to need to clear out some entries. I'll try to start with only the players I know I haven't seen in a while, but I may be mistaken, and I'd like to apologize in advance that it wasn't personal.

If you are removed from Driscon's friend list, but you are still active in ME3, just send me a PM here.